What Happens to People When They Think They're Invisible?

What Happens to People When They Think They're Invisible?

Article excerpt

It's an experiment ripped straight from the pages of H.G. Wells.

Using a 3D virtual reality headset, neuroscientists at the
Karolinska Institute in Stockholm gave participants the sensation
that they were invisible, and then examined the psychological
effects of apparent invisibility.

It doesn't actually take much to make a person feel invisible.
The scientists outfitted participants in 3D virtual reality headsets
and asked them to look down, at where their bodies should be. But
instead, the headsets projected an image of empty space. Then, the
scientists stroked volunteers with a paintbrush. At the same time,
in the headset display, the brush appeared to be stroking empty
space. Almost immediately, the subjects began reporting feeling as
though their bodies had become hollow or transparent.

"Within less than a minute, the majority of the participants
started to transfer the sensation of touch to the portion of empty
space where they saw the paintbrush move and experienced an
invisible body in that position," said Arvid Guterstam, lead author
of the study. "We showed in a previous study that the same illusion
can be created for a single hand. The present study demonstrates
that the 'invisible hand illusion' can, surprisingly, be extended to
an entire invisible body."

In fact, the illusion was so real that when researchers made a
stabbing motion with a knife in empty space, participants showed
elevated stress and sweat levels.

But perhaps more interesting was the effect invisibility appears
to have on social anxiety.

In the study, the scientists sought to create a socially
stressful situation by having the volunteers stand in front of an
audience of "serious-looking" strangers. The participant who had
first been rendered "invisible," reported lower stress levels and
showed slower heart rates than their "visible" counterparts.

"These results are interesting because they show that the
perceived physical quality of the body can change the way our brain
processes social cues," says Dr. Guterstam

In other words, as Guterstam told Live Science, "Having an
invisible body seems to have a stress-reducing effect when
experiencing socially challenging situations,"

As such, invisibility may, in fact, have practical applications,
such treating social anxiety disorders, he suggests. …